Mrs. Johnson's Busy Bees

CRCT Break Down for First Grade: 

Vocabulary focuses on word meaning, synonyms, antonyms, compound words

Comprehension: answering questions about characters, setting, main idea, supporting details, context clues, inferring, cause and effect, making predictions, and sequencing

Grammar: capitalization, punctuation, nouns, proper nouns, adjectives, verbs, contractions, different kinds of writing (letters, poems, and stories)

Research: ABC order, dictionary skills, and Table of Contents

Phonics: vowel and consonant sounds, word ending, and missing

               sounds in words

Numbers and operations: place value (ones and tens), ordering numbers (skip counting), greater than, less than, equal to, expanded notation, ordinals, sequencing, sets, fractions, and number names

Geometry: plane figures (square, diamond, triangle, rhombus, oval, rectangle, circle, pentagon, hexagon) solid figures (cube, cylinder, cone, rectangular prism, sphere), geometric relationships (patterns and positions), symmetry, visualization (using shapes to make new shapes), and comparing shapes

Measurement: measuring objects length, money, and time

Algebra: addition and subtraction (in word problems, finding missing parts, and estimating

Data Analysis: reading and interpreting graphs and number patterns

 Website to refer to for more information and samples:

http://www.gorgiaoas.org

Dear Parents,

Your child will be taking the Criterion Referenced Competency Tests in the spring of 2010 in the areas of reading, language arts, and mathematics. Students in third, fourth, and fifth grade will also be tested in science and social studies. These tests will be based on the curriculum (either Georgia Performance Standards or Quality Core Curriculum) your child is being taught at school each day. It is important for your child to attend school each day and complete assignments to learn the required curriculum. All students in grade three must pass the reading portion of the test in order to advance to fourth grade.  Students in grade five must pass both the reading and math portions of the test to advance to middle school.

I am working very hard to be sure that your child is being taught the standards and is constantly assessing him/her so he/she will be ready for the tests.  Starting in November we will begin working on test taking strategies, taking sample CRCT tests in the classroom, as well as for homework in the areas of Reading, Language Arts, and Mathematics.  Please refer to the First Grade Break Down on the back of this sheet for more specifics for each academic area.   

The Georgia State Department of Education has developed an online assessment system containing practice tests your child can take at home if he/she has access to the internet. There is no charge for the assessments and you can monitor your child’s progress easily. The practice tests are based on the skills and knowledge that will be tested next spring and test items are presented in the same format that students will see on the actual test. Students may take the student tests as many times as they wish, whenever they wish. Student test results do not affect a student’s grade. In fact, student test results are not automatically recorded, although a student may choose to save a result and/or send a result to me.

The Online Assessment System requires Internet Explorer 5.5 – 7.0 or Firefox 1.0 – 2.0 to run.  For further information about PC system requirements and browser requirements, go to www.georgiaoas.org, click on Support, scroll down to frequently asked questions, click on topic “OAS Not Functioning as Expected”, scroll down to “Why is the OAS not functioning properly” and click on “OAS System Requirements”.  The program uses a browser checker that will notify you if your browser is not compatible with the Online Assessment System.  If you receive an error message from your browser, you will need to convert to a browser that is supported by the Online Assessment System for the program to work properly. 

Starting today, your child can access practice tests in the following way:

1. Go to http://www.georgiaoas.org
2. Login with the student’s Georgia Test identification number (see the attached sheet).  The number must be 10 digits long and there are no spaces in the number. 
3. The password is education. 
4. The Student Welcome Page will appear and your child can click View Student Tests. 
5. Choose the subject area from the list of available subjects.
6. Select the test from the list.
7. Click the Take the Test button. The test will begin.
8. Once the test has been completed, click the Grade My Test button at the bottom of the page; a pop-up window will display.  Click OK.
9. The results of the student’s test will display. You can either save or discard the results. 
10. Click on Return Home if finished or click on a test option button if you want to take another test. 
11. Click the Logout button when you are finished working in the online assessment system. 

I hope this resource will be helpful to you throughout the year.

Our school is collecting  box tops.  Our goal is $500 this year.  Please cut off the box tops and send them to school with your child.  We have the forms at school for all Box Tops to be placed on.  Box Tops can be found on the majority of all Name Brand items.   Some items are:

 Huggies Pampers, boxes mashed potatoes, cereal, baking products, juicy juice, klneex, and so many more

January 12th Stevie B’s Night 4-8 (Mrs. Johnson and Ms. Patterson will be there from 4-5 p.m.)

January 18th  Observation of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

January 19th  Carmen Agra Deedy visits our school

January 25th-29th  Conference Week and Scholastic Book Fair

January 31st  January’s 25 Book Logs will be collected

My goal is to have all my students reading on or above H by the end of  the 2009-2010 School Year.  In order for your child to be on reading level they need to be entering First Grade on level C or above.  My the end of the school year your child should be reading on level Hto be on grade level.

Levels A & B: Kindergarten

Level C: ending Kindergarten/entering First Grade

Levels D-I: First Grade

Levels J-M: Second Grade

Levels N-P: Third Grade

Levels Q-R: Fourth Grade

Levels S-U: Fifth Grade

Levels V-Z: Sixth Grade

Writers Workshop: Functional Writing (Writing the steps telling how to go somewhere , draw, cook, or create

something)

Readers Workshop: Non-Fiction Text and Conventions

Reading Strategy: TAG READ

Phonics: sentence dictation, applying long and short vowel rules    Focus: vowel digraphs (ie, ei, oe, ew, ue, and oo)

Mathematics: problem solving, fractions, place value to 100, skip counting in number patterns (forwards and backwards by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s, and 10’s) and adding two digit numbers without regrouping

Math Strategies to use for addition: number line ( draw line and place the smallest number on the left side leave space and write the numbers that comes next until you get to the largest number and count the number of jumps made or counting up ( put largest number in head, hold up smallest number on fingers and count up until all fingers up have been counted)

Social Studies: Theodore Roosevelt

Spelling Words: frown   lay   new   shoe   piece   tie   eight   clue   boot   book

Mrs. Johnson’s 2009-2010 Schedule:

Our Specials:

P.E.: Mondays, Thursdays, and every other Friday at 8:05-8:45

• Please make sure your child wears tennis shoes on these days (you can bring a pair of shoes and leave them in your child’s cubby to ensure that your child has on tennis shoes on these days).

Music: every Tuesday at 8:05-8:45

Art: every Tuesday at 11:40-12:20

Lab: every Wednesday at 8:05-8:45

Friday Specials are as follows:

January 15th  go to P.E.

January  22nd go to Music.

January 29th go to P.E.

February 5th go to Music

February 12th   go to P.E.

February 19th go to Music

February 26th  go to P.E.

March 5th go to Music

March 12th go to P.E.

March 19th  go to Music

March 26th 30^th go to P.E.

April 2nd go to Music

Breakfast begins at 7:15 and ends at 7:45.  All students eating breakfast need to be in the cafeteria no later than 7:35 a.m. in order to have time to eat and get to class on time.  The cost of breakfast is $1.00 per day and the cost of lunch is $1.60 per day.  I would encourage you pay for your child’s lunch on a weekly or monthly basis.  This may be sent in to me in an envelope in your child’s Homework Folder or you can pay online via the Cobb County School District website.  We do have forms for free and/or reduced lunch.  If you need this service please let me know or obtain a form from the front office. Please be sure your child has lunch money everyday.  The cafeteria will not allow any student to charge a lunch.

School begins at 7:50 a.m.  Please make sure your child gets to school on time.   If your child is going to eat breakfast at school, they must arrive by 7:35 a.m. and go straight to the cafeteria.  I would really like to encourage your child to eat breakfast every morning!